Education Nicaragüense

Education drives the entire world. Learning makes us smarter, stronger, and more appreciative of the environment that surrounds us. Without education, global society would not have progressed as far as it has. Today, the Glimpsers of Matagalpa focused on the Nicaraguan educational experience and how it compares to our familiar experiences at home.

This morning, I woke everyone up very early at 5:30am, in time to get ready to attend school. As I walked around knocking (a little too loudly if you ask Cole) on my fellow Glimpsers’ doors, I relished the quiet serenity of early morning Matagalpa with Jessica on the hostel’s empty upper balcony. It’s incredible to see a place that becomes so wild and has such character later in the day shed in a more tranquil light.

After we finished eating a delicious Nicaraguan breakfast of gallo pinto and scrambled eggs, we set out in groups to two different high schools. I and eight other Glimpsers experienced Denis’s old high school, the private school of INEP. We were shocked and impressed by how colorful the school was. Though the walls were occasionally covered in hastily scrawled marker, the vibrant, graffiti-filled paint gave the school a character reminiscent of our entire experience in Nicaragua.

Once at INEP, my group met the principal and then split up to five different classes in order to shadow individual Nicaraguan students. My first class was biology, which was awesome because I learned about thirty new words in Spanish relating to cells and their structure and responsibility in the body. Min and I made several new friends out of a lot of of the girls in our class, most of whom were utterly captivated by how beautiful he was and continued to ask for pictures even after we had moved on to the next activity.

During the second class of the day, a physics period during which the teacher simply let the class do whatever they wanted, one of the girls who had been sitting on the other side of the classroom slid into the seat next to me. “Hi, what is your name?” she said, in heavily accented English. I grinned, so excited that she had the courage to attempt to speak my first language with me. We struck up a conversation about fairly simple topics (where I was from, her favorite subjects, shared hobbies) until we turned back to Spanish so I could explain my initial impression of her country.

At 10:20, INEP has a 20 minute recess, during which most of the Glimpsers participated in an epic basketball tournament with other students at the school. After a fair number of us had been eliminated, we enjoyed exploding into cheers whenever Danh or Tony made an impressive move against the locals.

Brandon, who was part of the group attending San Luis school, said that they, too, had an incredible time playing basketball. During their recess, he, Josh, and Cole challenged the school’s students, accompanied by the cheers of three levels of spectators. Every time the ‘United States’ team stole the ball or made a shot, the entire building erupted with noise akin to that of a home game at the Oracle.

At our respective schools, the group started to compare and make connections between the schools here and the ones at home. A lot of us were shocked at the apparent mayhem in every class. Do the students not care about getting an education? Do the teachers not care about their students? Why aren’t schools and classes as organized and efficient as they could easily be?

After lunch back at Hostal El Castillo, Ms. Hoang and Mr. Stegeman walked us through an Academic Seminar on education in Nicaragua and the United States. We were surprised by learning-related facts from both countries, including retention rates for teachers and unemployment numbers.

In the evening, we completed our fourth day of English tutoring, which consisted of (finally) a day where I didn’t lose my voice shouting to be heard in a classroom with around forty middle school-aged kids. Harmon, Gaby, Tony, and I completed practice pronouncing the alphabet with an epic game of Hangman for the students, which turned out to be the ideal balance between getting the entire class to participate while not involving too much excitement for the kids to remain in their seats.

I think it’s important to recognize the value of education and what it does for the world. Without quality education, society would regress, and the common man would be unable to make smart and intelligent decisions, both for himself and for others. As Mr. Stegeman pointed out, this seems to be a relevant problem even in the US, as we head into 2016’s highly contested presidential election.

Sitting on the balcony at 11:00pm, Matagalpa has again returned to a steady silence disturbed only by the occasional car motor and chirping cricket. That, and the sound of Kenneth freaking out over and over again about Brandon’s magic tricks. Today, we bonded over a new topic, and we all look forward to the opportunity to explore sensational Matagalpa for ourselves during Free Day tomorrow.

6 Comments

Grandee
on June 17, 2016 at 8:41 pm

Excellent observations, but I might be a little prejudiced here, Jocelyn. I do wonder if the day you experienced was a usual day or did the teachers and students behave differently because you all were there. I definitely have questions to ask the next time I see you. I was happy to read your comments about the early morning. That is my most favorite time of the day. I love to sit outside and listen to the sounds that find their way through the silence. I do have to admit that it may be possible to enjoy the same moments at 11:00 at night. I will have to try it sometime.

Thank you, Jocelyn, for your descriptive blog. I’ve been so impressed by all of the Glimpser’s writing – each with your own personality. Your writing draws us a beautiful picture of your daily experiences. All of us parents and families and friends, we miss you all so much!

Here’s a piece of news from So Cal: Stoked by winds, a wildfire burning west of Santa Barbara roared down mountain slopes toward the Pacific Ocean, shutting down California’s major coastal highway and forcing a group of firefighters to seek shelter behind a fire engine as flames licked at them.

As the blaze grew to more than 6 square miles, authorities warned Friday that the region’s notorious afternoon and evening “sundowner” gusts would recur through the next two days.

Weekend fire dangers already were expected to worsen with the arrival of an extreme heatwave across the Southwest.

Jocelyn, nice post! It is so great that you all got to experience such a different school environment. And I loved hearing about your conversation in English and Spanish with the girl in physics class. How fun to again have the common experience with other kids around sports with the basketball games. It is really cool that a game with a ball can transcend language and culture. Soak in all of the moments and memories! Love you! Momma

P.S. We have our last COPA game tonight Mexico vs. Chile. It should be an awesome cultural experience and a great game!

Jocelyn, Thank your for a descriptive and captivating blog. Education is key, and having the Global Glimpsers interact with the local students is a wonderful educational experience for both the Glimpsers and the Nicaragan students. A good ice-breaker is to Spanish to the locals, before you know it, they will be want to practice their English skills and will be conversing with you in English. We are enjoying reading the Glimpsers blog. Love you. G-Mama & G-Papa

All is well here in Oregon. I will be participating in the 5k Bubble Run in Eugene, raising money to end Alzheimer’s.

Hi Jessica! Hope everything’s still going great for you and that you’re not sick or too sunburned. Just wanted to let you know that I just got our tickets to go visit family in Birmingham from August 2-8, so you’ll have that to look forward to when you get home. Yay! Since you can’t reply, I’ll just assume that your response is, “Thanks, Dad! Happy Father’s Day! I love you!” You know, or something like that. Love you, sweetie! -Dad